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Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Should Schools Get back to our "Historic Judeo-Christian Principles?"

Two congressional lawmakers are asking the Trump administration to restore a missing U.S. government
website that helps families navigate a complex federal law on students
with disabilities. They also want U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ assurance that the site won’t be stripped down during her tenure.

Education advocates late last month noticed that the site, idea.ed.gov,
had been shut down. It has since reappeared, but in the past few days
it has linked to a generic page offering information about the federal
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

But the hearing unleashed concerns from special education groups — in a Jan. 26 letter to lawmakers, Denise Marshall,
executive director of The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates,
Inc., an advocacy group, said DeVos “manifested an appalling lack of
knowledge of educational concepts, the difference between the federal
and state statutes that govern education, and basic facts about public
education. Specifically, her lack of knowledge of the IDEA is disturbing
and offensive to us.”

Marshall said DeVos’ stance,
whether due to confusion or ideological belief, “is unacceptable and
clearly indicates that Ms. DeVos is unqualified to serve as Secretary of
Education.”

A policy manifesto from an influential conservative group with ties
to the Trump administration, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos,
urges dismantling the Education Department and bringing God into
American classrooms.

The five-page document produced by the
Council for National Policy calls for a “restoration of education in
America” that would minimize the federal role, promote religious schools
and homeschooling and enshrine “historic Judeo-Christian principles” as
a basis for instruction.

Names of the council’s members are closely held. But the Southern Poverty Law Center published a 2014 membership directory showing
that Stephen K. Bannon — now chief White House strategist for President
Trump — was a member and that Kellyanne Conway — now counselor to the
president — served on the council’s executive committee.

Further,

It also says states should encourage K-12 public schools to post the
Ten Commandments, teach Bible classes and recognize holidays such as
Easter and Christmas; promote instruction “from a Judeo-Christian
perspective”; and remove “secular-based sex education materials from
school facilities.”

It calls for the termination of the Common
Core academic standards and an end to the government collection of
student data, which has generated concerns among activists on the right
and the left.

The goal, it says, is a “gradual, voluntary return
at all levels to free-market private schools, church schools and home
schools as the normative American practice.”

And

The document proposes demoting the department to a presidential
“Advisory Council on Public Education Reform,” a sub-Cabinet-level
agency that would serve as a consultant to states. New employees should
subscribe to the educational worldview of the Trump administration, it
says, “from assistant secretaries to the mailroom.”

Really? Would there be an oath to work in that agency? A litmus test?
And DeVos said this at her confirmation hearing:

“My faith is very important to me and informs my work. In education, it
teaches me that every child is special and deserves the best we can
offer them,” she wrote in response to Franken’s question. “That said, I
do not believe in imposing my faith on others and, if confirmed, I will
implement the laws as intended by Congress. That includes the provisions
about the prohibition against religious instruction in schools.”

Ah, but if Congress changed those laws on religious instruction in public schools, Ms. DeVos?

“I can’t tell you today what’s being done that’s unnecessary, but I can
guarantee that there are things that the department has been doing that
are probably not necessary or important for a federal agency to do,” she
told Michael Patrick Shiels, a Michigan radio host, this week.
“Really, when it comes down to it, education and the provision of
education is really a state and local responsibility to a large extent.”

She doesn't even KNOW anything about the department she wants to run/dismantle? Points for being honest, minus points for being ignorant.

26 comments:

We need to eliminate Muslim teachings from American schools. It's a militant movement descising itself as a religion. Why would its followers seek refuge within a nation of infidels? Don't fall for the Trojan horse.

If the republican budget passes we may well see a lot more religion at "public" schools. It of course expands charters and vouchers, but also removes certification requirements, making the only thing necessary to teach at a public school a basic skills test. Please get the word out. Over views and the WEA action page can be found at https://www.washingtonea.org/ourvoice/OuttaSeattle

That shadowy but oso influential conservative cabal just leaks that type of manifesto to jerk the chain of the Bezos Post, which then writes a completely predictable story to jerk your chain. Yawn. What no one seems to ask or notice:

1) The Christian right has been saying essentially the same thing for 40 years. Is anything new?

2) The Post has been writing exactly the same response for 40 years. I wonder if there is such a person as Emma Brown, or if the story was actually written by computer. If Ms. Brown actually exists, she ought to be nervous, because Amazon definitely has AI which could have written the story in about 15 seconds, and software doesn't demand free contraceptives or family leave.

Ignore the reportobot (whether it's live or software, hardly matters) and consider whether anything is actually new. Well, maybe a couple of things:

1) One wonders how Betsy planned to give vouchers for religious schools without letting Muslims use them to attend madrassas. "Taxpayer funded madrassa" has an odd ring to it in Republican ears. Ironic how the alt-right called Obama a closet Muslim for eight years, but it was Betsy DeVos who introduced taxpayer-funded madrassas.

2) Maybe the Christian right, after a very long losing streak, sees a chance finally to bounce back as white people fully embrace identity politics, by positioning old-school Christianity as part of white identity. In which case the computer-generated response by the Bezos Post plays into their hands.

3) That old rag called the constitution has fallen into such low esteem on both the right and left, deep state and shallow state, that maybe it won't make a difference much longer. Like really, it mentions slavery so what moral authority could it have?

Outisider, we have a president who brought in DeVos who is VERY clearly aligned with this group. Do I believe they will get half of this done? No, but it's a clear and present danger and I'm not going to be complacent.

I find your words on Ms Brown (who I have actually talked to) to be distasteful. Don't get personal in your remarks.

And yes, if DeVos wanted to give vouchers to religious schools, it would be problematic for Muslim schools. Except, by then, Trump will have made all Muslim activities some kind of "radical Islam" and they would unable to access those funds.

It seems most of you know very little about the Islamic state or the true goals of Muslim immigration. It has been estimated that only 25% of German citizens supported the Nazi party in 1939 but the Nazi party would have conquered the world if it weren't for the Russian's perseverance.

Radical Islamic beliefs are held by an estimated 27% of all Muslims or 432,000,000 of the 1.9 billion Muslims worldwide and growing. That's 890,000 of the 3,300,000 living in the US. I suggest you think hard about those numbers and what they represent for the future of all non-Muslims here in the US. There are many similarities between the Nazis and those Muslims that follow Sharia law.

The 624 years of Ottoman rule was not peaceful or tolerant and the idea the Islam is peaceful is just plain ignorant.Now with Turkey once again under Islamic control it's only a matter of time before Islam makes a push for Europe and beyond. In the past we were protected by large oceans on our west and east boarders keeping invaders far away. Foolishly our government gleefully imports these enemies across those protective oceans and those enemies will patently wait for generations before acting. Who will be our Russians?

Part of what makes me proud to be an American is that at our best, we are not intimidated by nonsense, nor are we motivated by fear. It is when we are that our worst instincts, and not our best, emerge. Turkey has as much chance of making a "push for Europe" as I have of flapping my arms and flying to the moon.

Honey, don't stop with just the moose and lambs. Don't forget the Grizzlies. I know they are endangered, but with De Vos, she's bringing them back. Bigly back.

Which of course with such facts in tow, this brings us to your stupendous, calculated logic. Roughly 70% of Americans identify as "Christians". So by your logic, 70% of 322 million Americans gives us about 225 mil Christians and 25% of that goes to the Nazis = 5.6 million Nazis here in good old US. Better add that to your 890,000 number. There's probably a small number of Wiccans and Budddhists to add as well. In fact, better blow the Trumpet and get this fact to the Daily Caller and Breitbart pronto. ....Or the Russian's?! 'Cause that's a lot of 'bad hombres'.

Using logic from Don't repeat's posting. Agh, problem is even bigger, like 56 million Nazis. Here right now. But With De Vos and Bannon, we'll be a total Christian nation. So that's like a quarter of us are Nazis. We are doom. Doom. It's true. Trump's right. It's an American carnage.

The Portland chapter of The Satanic Temple has succeeded in its efforts to bring an after-school program called “After School Satan” to a Portland elementary school.The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the organization has been approved to begin a program on Oct. 19 at Sacramento Elementary School.

Finn Rezz, one of the group’s leaders, says their program focuses “on science and rational thinking,” and it will promote “benevolence and empathy for everybody.”The group says it hopes to counter the influence of Christian after-school programs, such as Good News Clubs, that have popped up at schools in the wake of a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for religious organizations to establish after-school activities at public school facilities. (more)

The US started moving its NUKEs out of Turkey last August. It's widly belived that Turkey will turn hostel towards the US in the near future. It's common for Islamist to move non Islamist states to mix and marry multiple wifes.

If 70% are JC then they are by far the majority and should be able to force a amendment to allow school to teach about JC values. Sounds like the will of the people is being suppressed by the violance of the progressive I doubt Islamist would allow that.

PEACHES, sounds like you are advocating for an extremist style of religious oppression. You make a cogent point to keep religious teaching, except in the context of religious studies classes, out of school curriculum. Perhaps a little less religious study and more study of punctuation would help you become a more effective troll.

I'm sticking to my story. The Amazon Post reportobot should be embarrassed by her laziness. An author-less boilerplate manifesto is dangled like fishing bait on a mysterious website, with no apparent audience except the Amazon Post, and then immediately disappeared the minute the Post picks it up as an excuse to reiterate the usual establishment talking points. The only place people get paid to do stuff like that is the out-of-touch capital of a dying empire.

The reportobot can't even be bothered to ask, is anything new here? Presumably her bosses don't care either. The stuff about ten commandments etc. in public schools is so hopeless in the current legal environment, why would this all-powerful cabal even bother? Because: they want to bang their heads on that rock one more time because suffering gets them heaven points? Or they plan to launch a constitutional amendment? Or they don't think the constitution will matter much longer? Or they are just playing the reportobot? Doesn't it strike you as odd that the reportobot is not even curious about this? The fact that she is not curious reveals what her job really is and why AI could easily take it over.

The strangest part of the story is perhaps the guy at the end, speaking only for himself (??), who advocates "repeal and replace" for the public schools. Does that idea have wide support in right wing circles? Is it advancing at the local level (where presumably it would need to happen)? You won't find out in the Amazon Post.

American wasn't founded on religious freedom, it's was founded on freedom from taxation without representation. If it were to be founded on religion freedom that list of religions would not include Islam. So many religious followers are hypocrites but Muslims are by far the worst. It's telling that most people don't know that the yellow star used by the Nazis to identify Jews was first used by Muslims to identify Jews as animals. The Islamic state of Iran writes "Israel must be wiped out" in Hebrew on it's long range ,missiles aimed to destroy Israel. Peace is the last thing Muslims want. Don't be fooled and remember,

Perhaps this is why the Congress wants to kill PBS? You can learn the most amazing things!

http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/islam-in-america/

When the first Muslims came to the land that would become the United States is unclear. Many historians claim that the earliest Muslims came from the Senegambian region of Africa in the early 14th century. It is believed they were Moors, expelled from Spain, who made their way to the Caribbean and possibly to the Gulf of Mexico.

When Columbus made his journey to the United States, it is said he took with him a book written by Portuguese Muslims who had navigated their way to the New World in the 12th century.

What is clear is the make up of the first real wave of Muslims in the United States: African slaves of whom 10 to 15 percent were said to be Muslims….

Between 1878 and 1924, Muslim immigrants from the Middle East, particularly from Syria and Lebanon, arrived in large numbers, with many settling in Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and even the Dakotas. Like most other migrants they were seeking greater economic opportunity than in their homeland and often worked as manual laborers. One of the first big employers of Muslims and blacks was the Ford Company—these were often the only people willing to work in the hot, difficult conditions of the factories.

At the same time, the Great Migration of blacks to the North helped encourage the African-American Islam revival …(more)…

You are wrong, layoff the coolaid. One only has to reference Sharia law to see that those so called Muslims you are referring to were not true believers. Americans are the hardest working people in the world. Those of you haters will not succeed in your quest to destroy her.

Watch whatever helps you justify your hatred and remember this, you are free to leave this country at anytime.

Just one of many logical inconsistencies by those who want religion in the schools....they think teachers are incompetent, but they want them teaching religion? Seriously? We teach our kids our values and attend the church we choose. I don't want teachers trying to teach some other brand of Christianity to my kids. For instance, my church understands evolution and that the world is more than 6000 years old. My church supports immigrant and refugees, and believes in serving "the least among us". My church stands in solidarity with the BLM movement and is opposed to persecution of Muslims. We are a Christian, bible-based church with a large membership. My sister's church believes the opposite on almost each of these issues. So which "Judeo-Christian" values would even be taught? Think it through....it's crazy.

Learn religion in church and at home, or not, but in any case, not in any government institution.

And Think, I'm accepting your 27% number as true only for the sake of argument. Because of the different branches of Islam, that number is not likely to be spread equally among all Muslims. The number in the US could be a tiny fraction of that. Any ability to think critically would have told you that, unless you NEED to believe that the US Muslims are out to get you, to justify your hatred. If you really want to be afraid, your likelihood of being killed by an angry white guy with a gun is dramatically higher than the likelihood of being killed by a "radical Islamic terrorist". That's statistics. Your Republican friends in Congress just made it easier for mentally ill people to own guns. Because, the Constitution. But screw the Constitution and equal protection when it comes to those you hate.

America is great not just because we allow those who want to destroy us immigrate here but because we also fully finance them. Over 50% of Muslims polled believe that homosexuality should be illegal and 60% believed Jews have no historical claim to Jerusalem. These were not so called "radicalized Muslims" but main stream Muslims. I won't get into the repression of women's rights by Islam, it's just too depressing.

There are many knowledgeable people willing to speak-up on the dangers that a segment of Muslims pose to western civilization. Here's what one said,

Professor Ruud Koopmans of the Netherlands warned the EU on Monday to block the entry of any refugees whose identity cannot be categorically confirmed.

Koopmans said that of the 1 billion adult Muslims in the world, ‘half of them are attached to an arch-conservative Islam which places little worth on the rights of women, homosexuals, and people of other faiths’.

In an interview with a German news website he claimed that of these 500million conservative Muslims, at least – and probably more – than 50 million are willing to sanction violence.

He says he considers his own estimate of 50 million ‘an understatement’, citing studies that show eight per cent of German Muslims agreed to the use of violence against ‘Infidels,’ while in his own country 11 per cent of Muslims agreed with the statement: ‘There are situations in which it is acceptable for me from the perspective of my religion, that I use violence.’

It only took 19 Muslims to destroy the twin towers, damage the Pentagon and kill 2,977 people.

Education Acroynms

Advanced Learning - SPS' three-tier program for advanced learners. Made up of APP, Spectrum and ALOs. (Note: the name of the district program is "Advanced Learning Services and Programs" but these three programs fall under "Highly Capable Services" of AL Services and Programs.

ALO - Advanced Learning Opportunity, the third tier of SPS' Advanced Learning program

AP - Advanced Placement. A national program of college-level classes given in high schools.

APP - Accelerated Progress Program. One of the levels of the Advanced Learning Program. NOTE: the name of this program is now "HIGHLY CAPABLE COHORT." This change occurred in 2014.

ASB - Associated Student Body. High school leadership groups.

AYP - Adequate Yearly Progress. Part of NCLB.

BEX - Building Excellence. SPS' capital renovation/rebuilding program that is funded via the BEX levy. Every 3 years there is the Operations levy and either the BEX or BTA levies as those two levies rotate in six year cycles).

BLT - Building Leadership Team. Staff members at a school who meet regularly to discuss building issues.

BTA - Buildings, Technology, Academics. The major maintenance/other capital fund for SPS. Originally BTA was to cover major maintenance like HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning), roofs, waterlines, etc.) but now covers wide swaths of items like athletic fields, technology and funding academic needs.

CAICEE - Community Advisory Committee for Investing in Educational Excellence. Created by former Superintendent Manhas in 2008, to issue a report about reform recommendations for SPS.

CSIP - Continuous School Improvement Plan, the plan for improvement for each school as required by state law.

EOC - End of Course Assessments, given in math and science, required for high school graduationESEA - Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the federal law that governs education, includes the NCLB accountability provisions.

e-STEM or e-STEAM - STEM or STEAM curriculum with an environmental focus.

FACMAC - Facilities and Capacity Management Advisory Committee. A district committee comprises of an all-volunteer citizen group created in 2012 to help bring research and ideas to capacity management issues in the district.

FERPA - Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. A federal law that protects students' privacy

FRL - Free and reduced lunch.

FTE - Full Time Equivalent

FY - Fiscal Year

Highly Capable Services - NEW name (as of 2014) as umbrella name for these programs: Highly Capable Cohort (formerly APP), Spectrum and ALO (Advanced Learning Opportunities).

HSPE - High School Proficiency Exam, state assessment that replaced the WASL for 10th graders, required for graduation

HQT - Highly Qualified Teacher, a standard set by federal law

IA - Instructional Assistant

IB - International Baccalaureate program. An international program of advanced classes that can either be taken as stand alone or as part of an overall IB program.

IDEA - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The federal law that governs special education

MAP - Measures of Academic Progress. A computer-based adaptive assessment made by NWEA and originally purchased by the district for use as a district-wide formative assessment but now used for a wide variety of purposes.

MSP - Measurement of Student Progress, the state proficiency assessment that replaced the WASL for students in grades 1-8

MTSS - Multi-Tiered Systems of Support

NCLB - No Child Left Behind, a provision of the federal education law, ESEA, introduced during the George W. Bush administration